Measurement of the inelastic proton–proton cross section at s=7 TeV

Abstract

A measurement is presented of the inelastic proton-proton cross section at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=7 TeV. Using the CMS detector at the LHC, the inelastic cross section is measured through two independent methods based on information from (i) forward calorimetry (for pseudorapidity 3<|η|<5), in collisions where at least one proton loses more than 5×10-6 of its longitudinal momentum, and (ii) the central tracker (|η|[removed]200 MeV/c. The measurements cover a large fraction of the inelastic cross section for particle production over about nine units of pseudorapidity and down to small transverse momenta. The results are compared with those of other experiments, and with models used to describe high-energy hadronic interactions. We congratulate our colleagues in the CERN accelerator departments for the excellent performance of the LHC machine. We thank the technical and administrative staffs at CERN and other CMS institutes, and acknowledge support from BMWF and FWF (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP (Brazil); MEYS (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); MoER, SF0690030s09 and ERDF (Estonia); Academy of Finland, MEC, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NKTH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); NRF and WCU (Korea); LAS (Lithuania); CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); MSI (New Zealand); PAEC (Pakistan); MSHE and NSC (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); MON, RosAtom, RAS and RFBR (Russia); MSTD (Serbia); SEIDI and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); NSC (Taipei); ThEP, IPST and NECTEC (Thailand); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); NASU (Ukraine); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA).